


Screamer

by bonehandledknife (ladywinter), Primarybufferpanel (ArwenLune)



Series: The Mountains Are The Same [37]
Category: Mad Max Series (Movies)
Genre: Dickery, F/M, Lizard innuendo, Masturbation, Max has a filthy mind, Multi, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-02
Updated: 2016-01-02
Packaged: 2018-05-11 04:42:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5614309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladywinter/pseuds/bonehandledknife, https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArwenLune/pseuds/Primarybufferpanel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Screamer: A long fall on a rope, frequently with screaming</p><p>
  <i>"Sometimes a shoe is just a shoe, Max," Furiosa finally managed, a little breathless. "And sometimes a lizard is just a lizard." </i>
</p><p>
  <i>She looked thoughtful and moved her thigh against Austeyr, who felt his face grow warm. </i>
</p><p>
  <i>"And sometimes a boner is just a boner."</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Screamer

**Author's Note:**

> Happy 2016!

That night they all piled up together, a little more twined together than Austeyr remembered. Furiosa pulled them all closer and made a happy little sound. 

“I’m glad you are here. I- I noticed what you did, getting me up there," she said softly in one rushed breath. She smiled at Rachet and squeezed his hand for a moment. Kompass chuckled and reached out across Austeyr to pet the top of her head, what he could reach of it past the others, and they laughed and made space for him to crawl over their bodies so Furiosa could lean her head against his.

“ Good job, replace-ace,” Ace smirked from behind Furiosa, and reached over to pat Kompass on his ass  

“That’s right,” Kompass said grandly, still draped heavily across Rachet and Austeyr. “filling your shoes... a bit small for my feet tho, but that’s alright.”

Rachet muffled his laughter against Kompass' side. 

"It's not the size of the feet,” Ace retorted, “it's what you do with ‘em."

There was a little huff of breath from the ledge, and they looked up to see Max grin. 

"See? Max agrees," Ace said, letting his arm drape around Furiosa and hold her loosely.

"Don't, ah, don't drag me into this." he muttered something about lizards, and Austeyr half choked, and awkwardly tried to launch himself out of the pile.

"Not that filth again!" he hissed. 

Rachet hauled at him with his good arm and Kompass settled his weight more heavily on Austeyr, teasing him about making such a fuss.

Furiosa laughed, and they all stilled for a moment, listening to it. Feeling the vibration move through them. Such a rare sound. It made them chuckle, too, curl in tighter to feel it, Ace spooning close and the others shifting towards her. 

"Sometimes a shoe is just a shoe, Max," Furiosa finally managed, a little breathless. "And sometimes a lizard is just a lizard." 

She looked thoughtful and moved her thigh against Austeyr, who felt his face grow warm. 

"And sometimes a boner is just a boner."

The warm press of her body against his had had its usual effect, and it wasn't generally something any of them felt ashamed of. But the Boss hadn't been well, hadn't been interested in sexing lately, and Austeyr wasn't quite sure if she would be annoyed with him for it now. 

"You should take care of that," she said softly, but it wasn't a dismissal, it was warm and close to his ear and maybe even - interested.

He felt his gearstick twitch with the thought that she wanted him to do it right here next to her, maybe even wanted to watch him do it. 

"Yeah?"

"Mm," she nodded.  

Austeyr was pretty squished so shoved at Kompass, who shifted until he was mostly lying on Rachet, who enjoyed getting squished sometimes. With his arms free, he unbuttoned his pants, heart already racing with the thought she wanted to watch him get himself off, Rachet and Kompass pushing at the cloth too until it slipped from his legs. 

He reached down and teased himself a little, drawing it out. 

Furiosa made an impatient little hum, and Austeyr saw Ace, behind her, grin. 

“Puttin’ on a show fer us?”

"Just taking care of things as ordered," Austeyr gasped a little, running his fingertips lightly across his shaft. 

Kompass peered over his shoulder, “Go a little faster,” he suggested.

Rachet poked him in the shoulder, "are you doing that twisty—"

“ Hey!” Austeyr complained, "I can  _ handle  _ it."

“Don’t see you handling much of anything,” Ace snarked, “Com’on, fang it.”

Austeyr saw Furiosa's hand twitch as he traced his hand over his own stomach, his thighs. Felt his gearstick strain up, and the only reason he could resist the urge to touch himself right, touch himself  _ now _ , was the heated look the Boss was giving him. Like she wanted to take a bite out of him. 

“Naaah,” he hummed drawing it out thoughtfully, “Think I gotta handle it gentle.” He drew a careful touch around his cockhead, a flare of sensation, and felt his thighs quiver with trying to restrain himself. “S-slow.”

Furiosa made a sound that could only be described as a growl. He saw Ace’s eyes sharpen in sudden understanding and amused approval as she squirmed a little, her thighs rubbing together and Austeyr felt the first drops of starter fluid leak from his cock. 

"Somethin' you want, Boss?"

“Keep going,” she ordered, even as she dragged Ace’s hand down from where it’d rested on her stomach. Ace chuckled and gave her the pressure she needed, slipping his thick fingers under cloth until she made a little keening sound. 

It’d made Austeyr tighten his grip on himself, and he’d gasped and mindlessly thrusted into it once until he grabbed control again and clutched at his thigh instead, breathing hard. He could hear Max shift on the ledge, saw the man watch with interest. 

He nearly started as he felt a hand land on his hip, but then Austeyr recognized Kompass’ broad hand as it slid down to grab hold of him. And he arched into that touch, which was anything but teasing.

He'd protest, weakly, if it hadn't meant he was now face to face with Furiosa. He took a glance down at where Ace’s large hand disappeared down the front of her trousers, the way her stomach jumped with the hidden movement of his fingers.

She looked directly into his eyes, pupils huge, and he couldn't help but look back, his stomach feeling weird and light under Kompass's touching. Without thinking about it he pressed his lips to her forehead, hand clenching on his thigh to follow her directions to keep touching himself.

“Aus, hey,” Her hand landed on his forearm, clutching as if trying to find a grip, looking at him as if trying to say something but her eyes closing as Ace shifted them a bit, positioning them more comfortably, and the movement surprised a moan out of her. 

Austeyr leaned his forehead against hers and watched, breath catching as Kompass’ hand moved faster and Rachet slid a hand down between his legs and Austeyr spread his legs a little to give him room. Rachet slid his palm up with a pleased sound, to cup his balls, and they rolled in his palm as they moved. It was wrecking him to keep so still, to be passive, and he was shaking with the effort. But Furiosa kept _watching_ him and her grip was like a brand on his arm and she wasn’t even watching where Kompass was jerking him but.

Staring at  _ him _ , he felt torn open under the gaze, and cornered, and uncertain for being seen, but she was  looking at him like she couldn’t quite believe that he was here, and like this, and for her. Except of course he was. Of course he tried to be, even how exposed he felt, he tried to be. 

Furiosa, even with crew, never. Never looked this closely before, or at least not with him. And he could understand why because even when she saw him, Austeyr saw her too, her uncertainty and distant loss and a vulnerability that tried to shutter itself away but broke open every time she tried to really look at him. 

And that was why Austeyr couldn’t look away. It was like being Witnessed only far more— far  _ more _ . Even when Kompass sped up his hand and he couldn’t hold the noises back anymore he pried his eyes open and kept looking, cupped his free hand along her jaw and kept looking. 

He spilled like that, destroyed by knowing hands and her gaze, mind struck blank and blind.

Kompass moved his hand up so Austeyr could lick it clean, and then slid it along to Furiosa's breast, kneading lightly, and she pressed forward into the touch with a noise like she was revving up. 

"We've got you," Ace murmured against the back of her head, fingers still busy, "We've got you, all safe here, got you—"

She made a noise that could almost be a sob, and curled forward, pressing her face against Austeyr's neck, her orgasm shuddering through her, hand tight on his arm. He pressed against her harder, knowing she liked shaking the aftershocks loose against a body instead of pushing a body away as some were wont to do. It was only now, though, that he suspected that she was pulling them all against herself to shore her for up those moments where she felt raw and bared, with her shields down.

As her heartbeat slowed down Austeyr could feel Kompass shift, still on top of Rachet, and start a slow, grinding rhythm against the other warboy. Both their bodies rearranged to focus on the other, and he could hear Rachet groan a "Yessss.." while Ace indistinctly murmured what sounded like a question in Furiosa’s ear. She hummed, and moved back against him as he took up a rolling motion against her hip, his fingers not moving from their spot in her trousers. 

In the middle of this nest of comfort, familiar sounds and scents and motions, Austeyr found his gaze drifting to Max's ledge, seeing the Wastelander watch them all. It looked cold up there, and he had his head tilted as if he was confused. And maybe.. longing. 

Austeyr made a head motion to invite him over, knowing after their time on the green that he'd be welcome, but the man startled and hurriedly shook his head no. It was strange because Max didn’t seem uninterested like some were, in fact his pants looked like he was definitely interested--

But in the end it wasn't his decision to make. Austeyr mentally shrugged and pulled himself tighter against Furiosa, hand landing on Ace’s hip and pulling him in harder as the older man strangled some moans against Furiosa’s neck. She hid her smile against Austeyr’s skin and he thought that was a fine way to all collapse, sated and warm, and fall asleep. 

* * *

 

Max… watched. His whole body ached to touch, his fingers twitched with the urge to reach out, but Max stayed on his ledge and watched.

Thought about it a lot, if he were honest. He'd woken up more than a few times with the images of them on his mind and his body achingly hard and straining for relief. 

In fact.. Max watched the tangled bodies on the mattress for a few moments more, until he was certain they'd all drifted into sleep. Then pressed the heel of his hand down, hard, on his erection, willing it to go down.

In another situation, in another life, Max might have already have reached to touch her, to caress her, to make her feel good. Eager for the contact. In a world where she didn't already have people around her; warboys he was still a little wary of, even though he could sleep around them now, even though they trusted him around themselves, and more important, around Furiosa.

But there was something in the way she leaned against Ace, in the way she drew Austeyr against her, in the way she breathed under Kompass' touch, that made him… well, not  _ worry _ .

No.

But aware?

Yeah, aware. He remembered how he'd crashed into her personal space when his own need was high, ignoring her signals, and what Ace had told him: 'You can't just touch her like that'. Max wasn't completely sure he knew another way, and he didn’t want to risk it until he knew he did. 

Despite the harshness of their lives, the Warboys had clearly learned another way, and that still surprised him every time, how much care there was in their touches, their looks. 

He’d come into the habit of these past many years of running, and fighting free so that he could run, of moving fast and rough so that his opponents were overwhelmed. And these weren’t opponents but Max was almost not sure he could break free of those habits. Violence was easy. Gentleness took all his concentration, like threading a needle with a line of his own blood, and being mindful of another's boundaries was such a new effort that he was afraid of failing the moment he stopped deliberately thinking about it.   

This needed the effort,  _ she  _ needed the effort, the situation feeling fragile enough like he didn’t quite know how to hold it, how to be a part of it. How to be this person, so different from who Max needed to be out in the wastes, and not track the madness into their home.

It might have been different if he could have time together with her, if he could figure out the sounds and language of her slow and thorough. But it was clear that whatever he would do with her would involve an audience of the War boys, unlikely to tolerate mistakes even if Furiosa herself was. Maybe that was best. They wouldn't let him fuck up and hurt her. 

So Max watched her Warboys touch her. Watched how well they knew her, knew how she liked to be touched, knew exactly how to make her gasp. Of how they worked together, anticipated her. Bared themselves for her.

Just because the warboys knew her well, had her trust to touch her in ways that made her vulnerable, didn't mean he did too. Didn't mean he could just start at the place where they were all together. Max didn't have their years of shared experiences, didn't know who she was when she relaxed, how her body felt in pleasure, how he could be sure how she wanted to be touched by him. It made him intensely aware that no matter how well they'd synched up in the heat of battle, he'd only known her in what was probably one of the most stressful and turbulent times of her life. 

How she'd looked that time he'd seen Austeyr massage her back was stamped into Max’s memory because of it, how she'd been facedown on the mattress with the warboy on top of her, how she'd been loose and relaxed enough to moan under Austeyr's hands. The image kept coming back to him, half exciting and half tangled up with the time Max had had her under him like that, moments before he'd put three bullets in the sand next to her skull. 

He hated that his dick didn't care, only remembered the feeling of being pressed up against her ass. It made him feel squirmy with guilt that the thought of that position was exciting. 

So Max only watched, body achingly hard, and tried to learn her. And turned away afterward, like now, to replay the images and the sounds of it in his head and fall asleep frustrated and alone. 

What felt like an hour later, he was still awake. The sounds of sleep rose from the mattress, soft snores and occasional shifting, somebody's restless murmuring soothed by sleepy patting. 

Max's body refused sleep, the images of their earlier touching still strong in his mind. Eventually he gave up and eased himself off the ledge, moving slowly and quietly, trying not to wake anybody. It wasn't like they didn't wake and fall asleep easily, but his face was hot with what he knew he was about to do. 

The Citadel was quiet this hour of night, and he didn't go far. Found a little alcove and wedged himself in out of sight, his hand already straying to his dick. 

* * *

 

"Hey."

Max twitched as Kompass sat down on the edge of the open hood, bruises on his skin vivid without clay to conceal them. Apparently there'd been some kind of warboy conflict. A Debate? Something like that. It had come to blows, anyway. Toast had mentioned it to him as they’d walked to the garage. Max was glad he had missed it entirely, during his trip out. 

It was after breakfast, and Max had gone to the garage out of lack of better things to do, doing some maintenance on the car he'd been out with. Meanwhile the Tribune split off to talk supplies and inventory with the repair boys, assessing what use they might make of Max’s finds. He wasn’t entirely surprised that one of Furiosa’s crew wanted to debrief him for themselves.

Max grunted in acknowledgement and continued working. 

"What'd you find, out there?"

Max still didn't know Kompass very well, hadn't spent time with him like he'd done with Austeyr and Rachet and even Ace. The Warboy always looked at the end of his patience, but Max knew Furiosa wouldn't like him so well if there wasn't more to the man. 

Still, to corner him here while he was working and ask that - he felt the strange urge to strike out at the Warboy, to make him flinch. 

"Warboys eatin' each other's flesh," he grunted. "Gone mad. Killin' each other. This pair I found—"

Max told him about what he'd encountered, voice coming easier as he spoke. It was a relief to say the words out loud, and Kompass didn't deflect them or try to make the atrocity less; he only listened attentively, with the occasional hum of understanding.  

"Was worried about that," he said finally. "Way the boys are tellin' it, Noxious had them all swept up, made them fight for spots on the convoy. Told the losers they were useless, getting left behind to die soft."

Max grunted, because… yeah. That didn't surprise him. 

"You tell this to the Boss?"

"No. Reckon she's got enough…" he gestured vaguely, and Kompass nodded in agreement. "Told Janey though." 

"Mm. Good." They both looked over to where Janey was assembling her patrol group. 

"Think that'll be okay?" Max said, nodding towards them. 

Kompass observed the group, the way the warboys jumped to the tasks Janey was handing out. 

"Yeah. They like her," Kompass nodded after consideration. "An' I've added some of our own guys."

Max made a questioning sound. 

"Some of the ones I picked new, for Furiosa's crew. They's solid."

Max counted sixteen Warboys ready to go out with Janey, six of them blackthumbs, and yeah, that ought to be enough. Even if some of the crazed Warboys he'd seen were still alive, they'd have enough people to defend themselves, and Janey wasn't the kind of soft person to take risks. 

He hummed and turned back to the engine block. 

Kompass didn't leave. 

"What happened back here?" Max asked eventually. He groped blindly for a spanner, and Kompass put it into his hand. "With Furiosa."

"Don't rightly know," Kompass sighed. "Got sad and tired. Miss Gale said she was heartsick."

"Mm.” In the years since the world fell, while it had made some more vicious and more feral, with others it was as if their spirit leaked out slowly. As if it died like the world did; he had a vague memory of looking for a house with green gardens by the dying sea, a meek dam against the Wasteland, for somebody who took energy from colour and growing. The Wastes would kill a person like that. Max cleared his throat, banishing such thoughts, especially here. Especially now.

"Thought maybe it was something like old grief gone rusty, clogging up the works, stalling the engine," Kompass said, quiet and tense. "Reckon we all got some of that, but none so much as t'Boss."

"Reckon so," Max agreed. He remembered the way she'd collapsed in the desert, when she'd found out about the Green Place. 

“Seen some like it in war boys about to go out soft, or who’d been sliding that way for a long while,” the war boy admitted quietly. “Don’t much like the look of it on her but Miss Gale says it should pass.”

“It’s been bad?” Max asked, a tightness in his chest that he tried to uncoil by remembering the laughter she had last night.

"Seems a little better now though," Kompass continued, tone lifting a little. "We got her up to the green again. And she was interested in sexing last night, that's always a good sign."

Max hummed in acknowledgement. He had no idea why his cheeks flushed, but he was glad to have an excuse to stay bent under the hood of the car. 

"You don't hafta leave when you wanna ‘debrief’.”

He made a questioning sound, thinking that he’d made himself available to talk about his trip so what...

“Rub one out, ya know," Kompass said, like a rock upside the head.

Max froze for a moment before forcing himself to continue working. Reminding himself to breathe and force his heartrate down. He'd tried to be discrete, but apparently he'd not just been seen leaving her quarters, they'd known exactly what he'd gone to do. 

"If she minded you watchin' you wouldn't be sleeping in her quarters in the first place," Kompass said, sounding like he was shrugging. "Hell, she'd probably like watching you rub off. Appreciates a show, our Boss does."

Max had a sudden, vivid image of her eyes on him while he stroked himself, giving him the same heated look she'd given Austeyr last night. He choked on his own saliva and bashed his head against the underside of the open hood. 

Kompass chuckled and helpfully pounded him on the back.

* * *

 

 

Thankfully the warboy had left him alone after that, and Max had gotten in a few productive hours of tending to the engine. He'd seen off Janey's expedition, pulling her aside to warn her again of what she was likely to find. She'd patted his shoulder and promised once more to be careful, looking fond about the eyes. 

Max was waiting in line for lunch when Kompass sought him out again, two other Warboys with him. He grunted a greeting, assuming he'd be acknowledged and then ignored in favour of the warboys, but Kompass came to stand with him. 

"Hey Max. These guys are testing out to be on Furiosa's new crew." 

Max stared at the warboys for a moment before he remembered they were expecting some sort of acknowledgement or greeting. 

"I'm uh, Max," he grunted, his right hand for some reason hovering forward before he wrapped it back around the bowl he was holding. 

"Nuts," said one of the warboys. 

"Lube," said the other. 

Max choked on the piece of biscuit he'd been chewing. When Kompass whacked him on the back hard enough to nearly dislodge a tooth, he gave the other man an incredulous look.

"Really?"

"What? You don't think they'll be useful?"

He was being baited, surely he was being baited. Kompass obviously liked making him squirm. 

"Sure. I'm sure he," Max nodded at 'Lube'," keeps things running smoothly." 

"Exactly!" Lube said. "Essential, you know, I make sure all the parts move together nicely, no friction." He spread his hands and waved them a bit like Austeyr did when describing proper lizard form.

Max could feel the strain on his face. "I'm sure that— that'll come in handy with the, uh, lizard racing." 

Lube turned to Kompass in confusion, “Though ya’ll didn’t do that anymore, with the new crew?”

“Didn’t think there’d be time, what with everyone pulling more rotations because of shortages.” Kompass bumped his elbow against Max’s, “Might work something with just Boss and us, if you’re set on it though?”

“Um…” Just then Max was at the front of the line, so he turned to the woman dispensing soup and held out his bowl. In the moment after, while the warboys got theirs, he made a beeline for the exit. 

He hoped no one saw his face red, in the poor lighting.

* * *

 

"Furiosa found him in the Wasteland," Kompass explained to the others, puzzled by the man's reaction. "Austeyr dragged him back after. He's good crew, but a bit... " he shrugged. 

"Feral?" Lube asked, watching the Wastelander's back as he walked out hastily. Nuts was looking back and forth between them all.

"He saved the Boss' life. He's no warboy, but you better treat him as good as if he were, you hear?" Kompass said, letting a note of force slip into his voice. "He's crew. You ain't yet, and if you treat him like rust, you'll never be."

The two warboys nodded seriously, and Kompass hoped Max hadn't disliked them too much to work with them. 

* * *

 

"Maybe he's gotten lost?" Gale said, glancing at Furiosa. They'd agreed to meet up with the Fool up here in the gardens, but they'd been waiting a while.

Furiosa hid a grimace. Maybe not so much lost as… any other number of unpleasant options. Waylaid. Attacked. Stuck in a flashback.

"Let's…" she gestured toward the steps down into the tower, and Gale nodded. "Yeah."

They found him only a few levels down, standing in a hallway with what Furiosa thought of as his 'Huh?' face. Head tilted a little, looking as if he was the last sane person alive. She followed his gaze, and—

"Huh."

"Well wou’d’ya look at that," Gale said, amused.

"I guess this is what we get now some of them are learning to write their name," Furiosa said after a long pause.

On the wall in a bend of the hallway, strategically visible from both sides, somebody had carved his name into the rock face. Correction:  _ Thunder  _ had carved his name into the rock face. As well as a crude, rather oversized depiction of his… thunderstick.

Furiosa tilted her head. "Is that... a medical condition?"

Max made a little choking sound.

"Let's hope it's just poor drawing talent," Gale snorted.

"We should probably warn people who don't want to be menaced by Thunder's poxy thunderstick," Furiosa mused. "Until we can…" she waved a hand at it.

"Leave it to me," Gale nodded. "I'm sure I could turn it into something educational."

The hallway eventually became known as 'the hallway of courage' once Gale had overlaid her rather gruesome anatomical drawing. Then, when the point was made (and no Warboy wanted to come near it) the wall was turned into a mural depicting the gardens above, neatly hiding Thunder’s handiwork.

_ They are trying to leave something of themselves behind _ , Furiosa told the Vuvalini, the Sisters. Especially now everything had changed and even Valhalla was no longer a certainty. Carving on their bodies had never been permanent enough; their bodies didn't  _ last _ . 

She told the Warboys that she didn't care what was on the walls down in the barracks, but the rest of the towers had to be for everybody.

Eventually Marienny stepped into the gap together with Deka - talking to people about which stories they wanted to tell, and how they should be depicted on the rock walls. Groups formed, walls were claimed, designs were tested with chalk, discussed and adapted and slowly, actual history started to be etched into the walls of the Citadel.

When those of the New Citadel eventually look back trying to find a beginning, this was one of the places they found.

* * *

 

That evening Kompass managed to track down Max again.

“So what’s your opinion on Lube? Think he’ll be good for crew?”

The Wastelander started choking on nothing again. That seemed to happen a lot - maybe they should get Gale to listen to his lungs. Some warboys had this problem, and they didn't usually live much longer.   


“You, ah, won’t have a problem working with him and Nuts?”

Max blinked. “You’ve been trying to get my opinion?”

“On them, yeah. Things work better if a crew can at least all work together, don’t have to like ‘em, necessarily.” Kompass felt his face go tense as he looked away, “Just have to make the runs smooth.”

“They seem fine? Don’t really know them,” he said awkwardly.

“What was that then in the mess hall?” Kompass pressed, "I brought 'em so we could eat together, get a feel for 'em. It matters if you don’t think you can have Lube on our…” 

He drifted off as he watched the man go more and more red.

_ Ohh _ .

"Austeyr was  _ right! _ " Kompass found himself fighting a grin because he didn’t want to chase the man away again, and at this rate he wasn't sure if the man would even bunk down with them tonight. But this was too amusing, Max looked almost awkward with the filth that his mind was giving him with a face just full of exasperated self-reproach. 

Kompass patted him amicably on the shoulder. "It's all right. Like the Boss says, sometimes a shoe is just a shoe, a lizard just a lizard, and lube just stuff ta get the friction outta moving parts."

"Not helping," Max ground out. 

Kompass glanced down and snickered a little, and then started walking the man through the crew he was thinking on. If he succeeded in getting him to Furiosa's quarters without considering fleeing elsewhere for the night, all the better. 

* * *

 

Max stared at the still-talking war boy as they walked, who kept bringing up war boys Max barely knew, and their favorite new paint patterns and gear so that Max could recognize them. The more he was around these war boys, the more he realized that Nux, out there in the wastes, had been abnormally silent and pensive.

He was recognizing the hallways they were passing however, and knew they were coming up on Furiosa’s room. And it was evening, about time for them all to bed down. But Kompass paused at a where the hall split three ways.

“There’s Imperator quarters in every direction here,” he said carefully, “If you’re finding things too crowded. Hell, Ace'd probably be fine with you using his." He pointed to a door. 

Max blinked and looked all around him, and when he looked back, Kompass was already moving down the hall again, toward Furiosa's door. 

“We don’t even have to know which one you pick,” he called over his shoulder. “And you’ll know where we’ll be.”

_By Furiosa’s side_ , was implied. _At her back_ , Max knew, and had seen for himself through siege and healing and politics. Guarding her.

Max thought about it, being in a separate room, away from all the uncertainty and the awkwardness and uncomfortable pants, and the innuendo that's sometimes innuendo and sometimes apparently not.  He had a feeling though, that the dreams would chase him no matter where he bunked down.

It would be safer, maybe, sleeping somewhere else. No risk of being tempted to touch her wrong, rough, like some of his guilty fantasies. Then again the warboys would be there, would make sure he didn't fuck up.  And something about the idea of waking up to utter silence, instead of the breathing and snores and other sounds of people nearby, didn't appeal. 

_When did that happen?_ Max’s eyes grew wide and he realized that his lungs stopped working.

He breathed out forcefully, and shook himself into a decision, and then caught up to Kompass. Didn’t look at him when he said, “I could still choose one of them later.”

“Yep,” Kompass nodded, not looking back, “Rooms aren’t gonna fill up quick, would need more war boys first to make that many Imperators worth it.”

“Furiosa’s room… ‘s nicer tho.” Max muttered.

“Yep,” Kompass agreed, and bumped their shoulders together.

**Author's Note:**

> ...if you think this title is bad, know that 'Max's Day Of Dicks' was suggested too.


End file.
